The foreclosure clouds are getting darker and darker. During the first quarter of 2008 borrowers received 113,676 default notices from lenders. This is just the green signal to foreclosures. It is an abrupt jump by 140% from the previous year during the same period.

RealtyTrac details online that as regards percentage count last month California ranks after Nevada in the national foreclosure race. Close on its trail are Florida, Arizona and Colorado.

Ventura County is not spared. There are ugly foreclosure dots all over the region. Lending house sent 2,176 default notices to house owners in Ventura during the first quarter of this year. Last year during the same quarter the number was 965. This calculates to a 125.5% rise.

The figures standing on their own are worrying. But what is more agonizing is that these are not just impersonal numbers and charts. Behind each unit is the story of individual families and homes. It makes the situation horrendous and alarming. A house is a home. Its loss is something that cannot be easily compensated either materially or emotionally.

Foreclosures have set on a chain reaction. Consumer spending has lessened, credit has been squeezed and banks are under seize. To top it all, real estate prices are tumbling and this in turn runs dry the government revenues and taxes. The flow of lifeblood to the local, state and federal governments are beginning to falter. There is hiccupping everywhere.

Lawmakers, communities and lenders are scrambling for solutions but as yet no noteworthy impact is being felt. Efforts to help the borrowers is being heckled by interests of the lending lobby, partisan petty politics and severe criticism for anything that smells of a bailout for speculators and greedy borrowers. Thus it seems that the figures of the first quarter in all likelihood will increase as the year advances. Many risky ARM’s had been contracted during 2005-06. These are going increase and more houses will fall into the foreclosure net.

HUD has a word of advice for those who are at risk. Do not ignore default notices but immediately contact the lender. Secondly one should be educated about mortgage matters including rights of borrowers. The person to contact is a HUD approved counselor and not any outsider touting help.

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